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Manuel Ángel Andrada Ballesteros (9 January 1890 – 21 September 1962) was an Argentine nine-goal polo player who won the gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Manuel Andrada
Andrada in 1926
Personal information
Born(1890-09-01)September 1, 1890
Coronel Suárez, Argentina[1]
DiedSeptember 21, 1962(1962-09-21) (aged 72)
Laguna del Sauce, Córdoba Province, Argentina
Medal record
Men's polo
Representing  Argentina
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1936 Berlin Team competition

Early life

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Manuel Andrada was born in 1890 on an estancia in Curumalal near Coronel Suárez, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.[2][3] He worked as a horse trainer and later took up polo.[4]

Polo career

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He was a nine-goaler.[3] His team won the Pacific Coast Polo Championship in 1930.[2][3] The following year, in 1931, he was on the winning team of the U.S. Open Polo Championship.[2][3] Moreover, his team won the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo in 1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1938 and 1939.[2]

He was part of the Argentine polo team, which won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[3][5] He played both matches in the tournament, the first against Mexico and the final against Great Britain.[5] He was the oldest sportsman to receive an Olympic gold medal according to the Guinness World Records.[3]

He was nicknamed "Paisano" (′peasant′).[2] He has been called, "the first Argentine-born star player" by polo historian Horace Laffaye.[3]

Personal life

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He had three sons: Manuel, Oscar and Eduardo.[2]

Death

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He died in 1962 in Laguna del Sauce, Córdoba Province, Argentina.[2][3]

Legacy

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His descendants own the Paisano Polo Club in Río Cuarto, Córdoba Province, Argentina.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Olympedia – Manuel Andrada". www.olympedia.org. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Horace A. Laffaye, Polo in Argentina: A History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. 2014. pp. 203-205
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Horace A. Laffaye, The Polo Encyclopedia, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 11
  4. ^ a b Paisano Polo Club
  5. ^ a b DatabaseOlympics Archived 2007-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
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